‘Brave’ Co-Director Brenda Chapman Moves to Lucasfilm as Consultant

My genuine dislike for Brave — specifically: its dull and poorly-structured plot, lack of imagination, as well as an overriding sense of “coasting” — might not be an issue here. You can thank the gossip for that one; some behind-the-scenes stories on that film, if true, show that Brenda Chapman shouldn’t bear much of the blame in putting a cold mess into theaters and, for yours truly, further sullying the Pixar name. She directed The Prince of Egypt, after all.

Thus, it’s with some confidence I read a report from PixarReport (via /Film), which tell us Chapman has recently left the Mouse House for Lucasfilm, whereat it’s expected she’ll be performing duties as “a consultant” in their animation department. It’s quite the enticing descriptor to be throwing around, particularly when you ladle on some extra mystery; /Film noticed, on Lucasfilm’s website, that their animation team are, in addition to their Star Wars work, “also focusing efforts on feature film animation and other new intellectual properties.” Needless to say, that’s probably what she’ll be focusing on.

I doubt Chapman‘s developing something directly for their two biggest franchises — but even that’s just one outsider’s shot in the dark. Whatever the project is, whatever stems from her hiring, and no matter how long it takes, the process of following this one along should be interesting.